Category: America

Lunar Eclipse, July 5 2020 – Tension, Change, Fireworks… and Healing?

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The up and coming lunar eclipse on Sunday July 5 falls on a very sensitive point of the USA independence chart.

This will be almost exactly conjunct the Sun’s position in the eighth house in that 1776 chart, activating the important second and eighth house axis, which is all about national security, money, finance, investment, banking. The USA would appear to be at a significant point of change in these affairs.

Intriguingly, the Sun at this time is exactly conjunct the fixed star Sirius, Canis Major, or the ‘dog star’, which is thought to be largely beneficial, his effects ranging from guardianship (protection), honour, perhaps even to spiritual healing and rebirth, some believe. Sirius is obscured by the Sun from early July until the second week of August, these are the so called ‘dog days’.

This might be highly significant, especially as this period will last until Sirius’ rising at the beautifully termed Lion’s Gate in August. We could all do with some spiritual, mental and physical protection and healing right now.

Dichotomy

In the chart for the eclipse itself, set for Washington DC, the tenth and fourth houses are particularly activated, highlighting the dichotomy between the government and opposition in the United States, the Sun and Moon also squaring the ascending degree of the chart.

And talking of ascendants, Aries is rising and therefore Mars is the chart ruler, who happens to be powerfully placed in his own sign. The whole situation is therefore energised, even bellicose, so we might expect some ‘fireworks’. Mars is in difficult aspect to Mercury, so expect caustic commentary and irritation too.

Energised

That said, Mars is in positive aspect to Venus in Gemini the third house – potential here for some ‘good news’ – we could do with some of that.

Interestingly, the Sun and Moon make a positive aspect to Uranus in Taurus in the second house, indicating the potential for positive change in regard to the economy, money, finance and banking. There are likely to be a few surprises here.

It certainly has the potential to be a weekend we won’t easily forget.

Copyright Francis Barker 2020

 

 

Album Review: ‘For The Roses’ Joni Mitchell – A Sleeper Masterpiece

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Any album which followed Joni Mitchell’s groundbreaking 1971 album ‘Blue’, still considered to be her best by many, would have difficulty in competing with such brilliant, heartfelt songs and musicianship.

Predictably, Mitchell’s 1972 release of ‘For The Roses’ (Asylum), did indeed seem to underwhelm by comparison. Even the title of the album does not exactly inspire one as much as the emphatic ‘Blue’, unless you happened to be a gardener or a seeker of some bucolic escape. Nevertheless, I have to say I find this album something of a sleeper.

Unfair Comparisons

I, like many, first became aware of Joni Mitchell with songs like ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, songs which made you stop, listen and take notice. Then along came ‘Blue’ and the plaudits, rightly, went bananas. Then, at least to me at the time, a youngster barely in his teens, there seemed to be a bit of a lull. Suddenly it was 1974 and the wondrous ‘Court and Spark’ was released, another groundbreaking collections of songs. Somewhere in the middle of all that came ‘For The Roses’. It has only been over the last fifteen years or so that I have come to appreciate how good this album is.

And it turns out the album’s name and character did indeed indicate the singer songwriter’s partial retreat from the hurly burly of superstar life. So here are songs perhaps less intense than ‘Blue’, but reflective of a different inner life, the beginning of her more observational, anecdotal story telling songs which have become so much a trademark of her later career.

Retreat

The opening track ‘Banquet’ sets the tone firmly, yet gently, indicating her retreat from all the pandemonium, stepping down towards the shoreline and taking a wider philosophical look at life and all its absurdities. Here too I can sense the true beginning of her more jazz-folk inspired trajectory, followed up in the next acoustic guitar driven track, ‘Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire’.

If the first two tracks evoke a certain subjective melancholy, track three, the more upbeat ‘Barangril’, really brings out Mitchell’s great gift of taking an everyday snippet of daily life and turning it into a timeless masterpiece of modern Americana.

‘Lesson in Survival’ returns to the reflective melancholy, but beautifully so. Few songwriters, one would imagine, have ever been so well read. The wish for escape is overpowering. ‘Let the Wind Carry Me’ continues with the theme, but gives us more than a glimpse of parental influences, how they seem to us as we age when we realise Mum and Dad were not perfect either. I love the little jazzy flourishes with the voices and wind instruments in this song, something she would continue to perfect in later albums. In this song they evoke the whistles of steamers.

Wild Canadian Expanse

It has been said before (probably by me previously too) that Russian composers like Rachmaninov can’t help but sound like the vastness of the Russian Steppes. I think the same goes for more contemporary Canadian composers too, particularly Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. In ‘Let the Wind Carry Me’ I can hear the vast open plains of central Canada where she was brought up and also the equally wide Pacific Ocean off California.

‘For the Roses’, the title track, is an understated guitar song of exquisite guitar work and minimal arrangement, critiquing the lifestyle she has become accustomed to and which she is now eschewing. ‘See You Sometime’ is more straightforward, reflecting on former loves, their lifestyles, in a major key, leaving open the possibility of staying friends.

Transition Period

‘Electricity’ is a beautiful guitar track, spanning this transition period. ‘You Turn Me On, I’m A Radio’ might also have appeared on an earlier album, but served the purpose of being a catchy hit single from this album.

‘Blonde in the Bleachers’ definitely looks forward, another anecdotal snippet finding meaning: It transforms beautifully in the middle to a more soft rock number with sophistication. ‘Woman of Heart of Mind’ really does sound to me like it was composed a year or so prior to the album’s release – it is, nevertheless, beautiful and understated.

The final track, ‘Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig’s tune)’, is probably the most sophisticated piano based track on the album, Joni leaving us typically with a philosophical view based on much reflection. The arrangement of wind and strings is also tasteful.

Overall, this is still one of my ‘go to’ albums. It helps me relax and reflect, probably the desire of the composer at this particular juncture in her life. It is generally understated and certainly not her best offering – yet it is still a great album in my view.

copyright Francis Barker 2020

Photograph: Saint Margaret’s Minster, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England

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Photograph by Francis Barker 2020

Me? In A Red Corvette?

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Our loft, apart from being a mess, can sometimes turn out to be a proverbial treasure trove. Well, not exactly!

We all love to look and dream about red sports cars, especially an iconic red Corvette, naturally, don’t we?

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I look at this red Corvette most days, pick it up and look at the lines, imagining I’m somewhere in the Mid West cruising along Route 66, or some long open highway with only mesas, inselbergs and the odd raptor for company, the shapes of distant mountains blue in the background.

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One day our dreams may become come to fruition.

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Copyright Francis Barker 2020

 

Dark Times of Intensity – Saturn Meets Pluto

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The long awaited conjunction between Saturn and Pluto becomes exact on January 12 2020, which also includes the Sun and Mercury, increasing its significance.

There is a Saturn Pluto conjunction very 33 to 37 years or so. Examples of others occurred in 1914, 1947 and 1982 and much has been written about these ‘coinciding’ with the beginning of WW1, The Cold War and the economic depression of the early 1980s.

However, this one seems especially dark to me. Put simply, in astrological terms, this planetary activity is taking place in Capricorn.

The goat represents the milieu of the status quo, business and politics. Saturn is in its own sign, very powerful, and represents authority and establishment.

Pluto’s Power

Pluto, so much demeaned by astronomers for now being classed as a ‘minor planet’, shows no signs of having any corresponding minor impact in astrology. Most positively, the Saturn Pluto conjunction could be said to symbolise restructuring.

Pluto is about power and it tears down, exposes, transforms, brings forth what has been long concealed, but also intensifies. From this it isn’t difficult to see that is just the kind of thing that has been happening, particularly in the world of politics and it hasn’t been pretty.

In the UK we have Brexit, Britain’s exit from the EU apparently recently endorsed by the Conservative’s landslide win in the General Election. The country stands to leave at 11pm on January 31 2020.

Political Chaos

There is much corresponding unrest in other European countries, violent protests and people questioning the future of the EU itself.

We have political chaos in America, where the President has been impeached, yet the process has not yet passed fully to the Senate – perhaps because it doesn’t stand a chance of being ratified, although at times the proceedings on all sides seems to beggar belief.

I could go on, but suffice it to say that I think the best outcome from all this is that we shall see the foundation of new political structures in the ensuing weeks, months and years.

I just hope and pray that this process of political transformation occurs as peaceably as possible and that we, the people, come out of it properly represented and wholly informed.

copyright Francis Barker 2020